THE US AGAINST THEM BANQUET OF HORRORS
The world we inhabit is in large measure the externalization of our interior states. We project onto the landscape of our lives the cultivated assumptions and conclusions of our collective experience. Day and night we are bombarded with stories of conflict. From continent to continent and from the uttermost corners of the earth there is the noise and destruction of national and internecine strife. The accounts of these are collected and fed to us in a steady and consistent menu designed to create among us gluttons for blood and gore. Our collective insecurities are cultivated to serve the economic and existential needs of business interests that profit from our appetite for the us against them banquet of horrors.
A critical examination of the practices of the peddlers of information lead some of us to the conclusion that they have no real stake in the resolution of any conflict. For them every tragedy is a selling opportunity. The demand for high ratings is the primary driver in their business culture, and this dictates that they promote a veiled, yet callous disregard for the best interests of people. In news culture the saying “If it bleeds, it leads!”is a truism. One is almost left with an impression that there is something of a silent partnership between news organizations and those who create the means and the motives for the tragedies they report on. Almost.
MEDIA… THE BARKING DOGS
Through the pageantry of their news shows our popular media connects with the barking dogs in each of us. They use all the tools at their disposal to create a symbiotic relationship between us and them… much to our collective exasperation. And so we complain, but we return for more. We cringe, but can’t help the rubber-necking that keeps us distracted against our better judgment. We can’t help being strung along in the vainly redundant dramaturgy that is the “news of the day” – twenty four hours a day all year long. We are hooked because we see ourselves in the stories. The conflicts are our conflicts. The tragedies are our tragedies. We live. We suffer and die. And then we rise again in a never-ending vicarious melodrama.
OUR OBTUSE NIHILISM
Our availability to the impulses to become tragic actors in the arena of our conflict driven reality is jarring. Untethered from any moral guardrail…we become the rapist, the child molester, the robber, the terrorist, the murderer, the wearer of the long black coat with the assault rifle hidden beneath looking to create mayhem. We become the wielder of the long knife on the elevator and at transportation centers. Yielding to an obtuse nihilism we become the bigot, the oppressor of the disadvantaged, the enslaver of the stranger, the jailor of the downtrodden seeking to escape the drudgery and degradation of downpression (Rastafarian coinage for oppression). In the absence of any civil restraint we become the invaders of countries, the killers of innocents, the abductors of daughters, the perpetrators of genocide.
WE MUST GIVE PREEMMINENCE TO OUR BETTER NATURE
Evil exists. It is not just an abstract moral concept or some supernatural entity. It can be seen as the deliberate infliction of severe and preventable suffering and destruction on sentient beings. It finds expression as a profound lack of empathy, a desire for totalitarian control, and as the treatment of human beings as mere expendable objects. We know evil because we are aware of its potential in each one of us. It thrives in and among us unless we make a conscious choice day by day, minute by minute, event by event, not to feed the callousness that it engenders.
But in the midst of all this… Good exists. And for good to be triumphant we must each commit to nurturing the angels of our better nature. We do so whenever we choose to emphasize the virtues inherent in a more rational and compassionate version of ourselves. Rather than continually slipping into the destructive negativity that is the default position of fearful persons, we can choose to emulate the acts of compassion to which the angels of our better nature call us. Fearfulness on the other hand is an expression of the lack of empathy that becomes characteristic of those who seek to establish themselves at the expense of others. It is a building-block of the inhumanity which is featured in the devastation that is perpetuated by the forces of evil.
Instead of practicing the wisdom implicit in a live and let live philosophy; we become the willing servants of the live and let die notions that corrupt and corrode our relationships. To seek to build our security on the cultivated insecurity of others is an exercise in futility. All efforts to this end are destined to fail because they have their own destruction built in. To mask our intentions to this end in the patently false nobility of some pseudo-religious nationalism is to expose the undeniable crassness of a way of living that wars have been fought to defeat. The contradictions of being that are inherent in the behavior of ruthless people are verily the seeds of their predestined failure to thrive. The idea of live and let die is oxymoronic in ways that are irredeemable. It is fraught with paradoxes that burn themselves out in the blaze of their own clashing contradictions. An existence based on lies will eventually succumb to its own logic.
Let us consider for a moment the twin impetuses behind our actions as human beings.
FIRST - CONCERNS FOR OUR SECURITY…
The most basic motivator of behavior is the need to survive. It is the prime mover of our responses in the various situations of our lives. The quality of our responses to perceived threats is a direct function of the quality of the values we cultivate habitually. Honesty. Humility. Courage. Equity. Equanimity. These are values that can be inculcated through commitment to the practice of a wholesome practical and philosophical approach to life. They are the values of the true warrior, and the guideposts of the ultimate survivor.
A wholesome practical and philosophical approach to living is centered around an expressed commitment to maintaining a healthy balance in all our relationships. It informs one’s approach to the world, and strengthens body, mind, and spirit in preparation for the many challenges that being in this world presents. The person who is thus oriented learns to focus on what is essential to achieving a constructive livity, and acts in the best interest of others and self. Livity is a Rastafarian concept/coinage that points to the quality and the consciousness of one’s living. It assumes a connection between all living beings, and fosters the idea that this connection is sacred. Persons are therefore encouraged to act on the understanding that true strength never exploits the disadvantaged. We survive and thrive when we invest in the survival and prosperity of others.
SECONDLY - OUR INTENTION…
The thing in us that gives rise to, and determines the quality of our actions, is something called intention. It is the big WHY behind every action we execute. To have intention is to be able to determine at the most basic level what we intend the desired outcome of an action to be. Every time we choose to act in the best interest of other beings we are nurturing what is better about us. The creation of viable communities is our ultimate purpose. It is the intent that energizes the actions of those who choose to put good over evil.
Community is that entity that is designed to account for and give rise to the most healthy idealism we can engender. This is not always easy, because it requires that we become more and more selfless in our behavior. It demands that we suppress our desire of immediate self-gratification and our pursuit of personal aggrandizement in the interest of perpetuating the common good. Acting unselfishly engenders a nobility that although uncommon, is essential to the building of viable communities. Viable communities are the cornerstones of great nations.
A MORE HOPEFUL WORLD
The creation of a more hopeful future is the challenge that we are called to take on with resolve. The difficulty of that task is not unlike that which faces the rock carver. Where some see insurmountable difficulties, the carver cultivates and brings to life a vision of something creatively and foundationally sound. To carve out a world that expresses our highest ideals and that benefits us all out of the hardness that we have come to know is a daunting task. It is nonetheless the task from which we must not shrink.
With the angels of our better nature as our guide, let us proceed post haste. What some may see as daunting obstacles can become opportunities for something inspired. A better and more inspiring world awaits. With the hammer of our collective efforts and the chisel of our creative genius - we can make the formidable possible.
